Origins Unknown

by M K Hussain

  “You, however, have been assigned my Head of the Guard for this very reason. Your activation for this moment has been through careful selection. This has been done via analysis of your immersive training, methods undertaken in your various aptitude tests and results from these, and your previous involvement in such matters. The result of all of this puts you miles ahead of the rest of the guards, in a spot worthy of leadership and is an accolade second to none, not even myself.

  “I often wonder if you were in my role, what you would do to resolve such matters. Would you set them aside lightly…” the Commander unbuckles something from within his cape, “or take the handling of these matters to the extreme?”

  The Commander swiftly takes out a whip, turns on a switch so that the device emits a purple fluorescent light and whips the guards numbered 22 through to 30 furiously, narrowly avoiding Number 1. Once hit, the guards’ physical structure begins to change, as they first begin to harden and crumble before melting to the ground amidst deafening screams.

  Numbers 7 and 8 let out a scream of fear and then gulp before moving away from the melted pile of soldiers.

  “W hat about you two? What do I think about your performance?”

  Number 7 and 8 start umm-ing and ahh-ing, until the Commander puts a finger in front of himself to silence them.

  “Well, I’ll tell you what I think, shall I? Reports from the other guards suggest one thing and one thing only…”

  “And what’s that, Sir?” Numbers 7 and 8 say in unison.

  The Commander unleashes his whip and administers the same punishment to them as he has just done to numbers 22 through to 30, both 7 and 8 melting to the ground, blending their melting gloop into one another.

  “You talk too much.”

  Number 1 draws his rifle out of its holster and points it squarely at the Commander before shooting at his face. The Commander uses his whip to disintegrate the bullet from existence before slicing Number 1’s gun in half, melting it to a point that Number 1 has to shake off the boiling residue from his hands. Then, he calmly switches off the whip before placing it back in his cape.

  “You have not been hurt as I have been hurt, Number 1. Your carelessness in your mission has made you reckless, tired even beyond imagination and less cruel than I gave you credit for.”

  Number 1 quickly switches guns to his secondary weapon: a smaller, leaner automatic, which he uses to point at the Commander. The Commander smirks briefly before rapidly taking the gun from Number 1 and pointing it at him instead.

  “For a split second, I had wondered whether or not you would fire your weapon upon me, your superior, and your better. I noticed a glimmer of hope in your eyes just then when you actually did, with the same sense of fulfilment in your task that I want from you.

  “But… trust me when I say this to you. I do not allow mistakes to happen at any given period as witnessed by the events that took place here right now. Let this be a lesson to you.”

  The Commander now turns the gun around in his hand to give back to Number 1 before realising that Number 1 is actually holding on to a tertiary hidden weapon, ready to use it if needed.

  “You firing upon me despite not thinking of the consequences is precisely the reason why you are Number 1. You have the same cold-hearted potential that may make you Commander one day. I see a little bit of myself in you. Do not make me extinguish myself from your heart and mind.”

  Number 1 replaces his tertiary weapon within its confines upon his person and takes back his secondary weapon from the Commander.

  “Yes, Commander, Sir,” replies Number 1 uncertainly as he turns and looks upon the melting bodies of his former patrol on the floor.

  “Go,” says the Commander, waving his hand at Number 1.

  “Number 9, switch off the feed.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Number 1 dusts himself down and wipes the beads of sweat generated on his forehead before attempting to make his way up to the armoury to grab himself a brand new primary weapon.

  “Just before you go, Number 1.”

  “Yes, Sir?”

  “I am sending you some help. Do not upset their leader. Meet them at the co-ordinates I will have Number 9 patch through to your headgear.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Number 1 mumbles as he walks away quickly.

  “Number 9, wake them up…”

  9

  SATRAULIA

  “… What kind of danger lurks out here,” Rebecca continues shouting, finishing the sentence she had started before being dragged through the door, the newly torn fabric of reality that we now stand within. The door quickly closes behind us.

  Ahead of us lies yellow snow and wind for many miles around. There also stands a pack of five ravenous grey wolves at the edge of a cliff directly in front of us, blocking our path. Each of them stares at us intensely with piercing red eyes, hot saliva dripping from their extremely sharp, yellow fangs while they growl menacingly at us. They move forward slowly towards us in unison, spreading out slightly to try to force us to the cliff edge.

  I think they believe we are weak and defenceless because they see no weapons on us.

  “What do you think they want with us?” cries Rebecca, too scared to perhaps see that her question is a pointless one.

  “Take a wild guess,” shouts William sarcastically. “They want meat, food, and now they have it.”

  “Are we confident enough to defend ourselves using our powers?” I ask them both as deep down, I know that I’m still trying to figure my powers out.

  “We can control ours, I think, to a certain extent,” replies Rebecca.

  “Well, it’s about time we found out, don’t you think?” William shouts as the wolf in front jumps at me.

  Why me? Is it the chest pain? Is it because it thinks I am the weakest of the three because of it? Did it sense this somehow?

  Instinctively, I throw a shockwave at it, hitting it square in the face and knocking it sideways. The other wolves attack at the same time, as two of them go for my companions. The remaining two wolves keep watch, silently watching the action unfold but ever ready to jump in when needed. They jump in shortly after, one going for William, the other for Rebecca.

  Rebecca douses the wolf that attacks her with water she summons from one of her hands, while using her other hand to generate a huge gust of wind to blow the second wolf coming for her into the first wolf, creating a huge, wet tornado combination. Both of the wolves opposing her run away as quickly as possible once the tornado stops many miles away, the wolves scared of her abilities and of drowning.

  William, on the other hand, punches both of his attackers in the face and gut, relying on his brute strength and physique to pummel them. One of the wolves bites down hard on his left arm but cannot chew through his hard skin.

  William’s a big, strong guy. Not seen much of his abilities yet. Probably still in development, but he could sure do with a hand right about now.

  The second wolf attacking William pounces at his face, claws outstretched. Quickly, I use my power to create a shockwave to shove both wolves into each other hard, to get them off William and knock them both off the cliff with a yelp.

  The first wolf I had dealt with still has unfinished business and suddenly jumps at me, its huge jaws about to clench around my skull. I quickly shove it back off me. It leaps again, snarling viciously, but this time I am ready for it. I grab hold of its jaws using my bare hands and use the weight of my body and legs to pin it to the ground. The wolf, heavier than me, swipes at my legs causing me to fall down but I still hold its jaws apart. It pushes its weight onto me this time, causing me to lie on the ground, back first.

  Just then, Rebecca summons an internal energy around her hands; a green, bulbous, flaming ball of fire that she throws inside the wolf’s wide, gaping mouth. It disappears deep within the belly of the beast, causing it to stumble back off me. It runs away down the path leading off the cliff in front of us, howling and spewing smoke from its jaw like a fast-moving chimney e
ntering into the deep, orange forest that lies ahead of it.

  We all lay on the ground simultaneously, exhausted.

  “Is anyone hurt?” I ask whilst drawing in deep, painful breaths.

  Having the weight of a wolf on your already painful chest really does wonders for the respiratory system…

  My hands ache from holding the wolf’s powerful, pointed jaws apart, not to mention my chest pain.

  “I’m OK,” says Rebecca.

  “Well, I’m not!” William roars at me, holding up his bleeding limb, which had been ruthlessly punctured now by one of the wolves. “Seen the state of this? I’m lucky it hasn’t been yanked off altogether.”

  It does look nasty as blood is pouring out in dribs and drabs from various places, clear that savagery is at the heart of its cause.

  “Let me help you,” I urge William.

  “No, I’m fine. Step back.”

  William holds up his other hand to his injured arm, cupping it to produce a clear liquid, which he uses to clean his wound. The blood on his arm is drying up and the wound is beginning to heal itself.

  My chest pain is really bad and I struggle to get myself off the ground.

  “YOU,” William points a finger at me while half-sniggering, “need to help yourself first before attempting to help others, otherwise you are going to slow us down… a lot.”

  “YOU don’t need to go all alpha-male on me. I’ll hold up my end,” I grumble back at him, staggering under great duress onto my feet.

  “Yeah, right…”

  William and I then continue throwing vile words at each other for a while.

  “How do I take this off?” Rebecca wonders quietly, looking up and down at the strange object attached to her wrist as we argue in the background. Suddenly, she approaches, shoving us both away from each other.

  “Ladies, ladies, please, stop getting your knickers in a twist!”

  At this point, William and I are chest-to-chest, invading each other’s personal space and daring each other to strike the first blow.

  “After all the danger we have faced so far and more danger lying lurking in the shadows that we’ve yet to encounter, we’re fighting now? By now, the Commander will have sent out his forces in full, they will be currently hot on all our trails and all you can do is THIS? And now? Grow up, the pair of you!”

  Both of us stop to look at Rebecca’s face. She’s frustrated, tired and right now, full of anger. We can tell that she’s ready to use her powers against us if we don’t calm down, as shown by the small, green fireballs within her hands which are rapidly growing.

  I turn and look at William.

  “I’m sorry, Will.”

  “Yeah, whatever, same to you,” he replies, brushing off the whole thing for now.

  Rebecca calms down as well as the fireballs disappear from her hands. She instead uses her powers to grow a bunch of vines, leaves and twigs, which she gently wraps around William’s hurt arm.

  “Gently apply pressure and leave on until you feel better, OK?”

  He nods at her.

  She then walks me over to a nearby tree and places a hand on my chest while wiping the sweat off my brow.

  “Travel, keep up using CUT if needed but also rest in-between.”

  I nod at her too.

  Just then, we hear howling in the distance. The sounds of rushing footsteps and snarling; the sight of leaves on far-off trees swaying to and fro sends momentary chills up my spine.

  The wolves… they were returning with back-up in tow!

  “Come on work, you stupid thing!” Rebecca shouts at the CUT device on her wrist.

  She’ll never get the hang of it.

  Despite activating our own CUT devices instead, we rush to Rebecca’s aid.

  “We need to get out of here.” I speak clearly to them. “We aren’t strong enough to fight off more wolves, we need time to recuperate.”

  “Gee, you think?” William shouts back.

  “Need I remind you guys, I’m fine. It’s you two that are weakened by the attack, not me. But that’s not helping right now,” Rebecca adds. “Just like this damned thing isn’t either.”

  “Come here,” William cries. “You’re not doing it right!”

  By this time, we are all pressing randomly at her CUT device. All of a sudden, another huge pack of wolves rushes out of the forest and leaps towards us. Their claws and teeth are sharpened this time for victory against us, hopeful for the taste of fresh meat.

  By now, we have pressed something we shouldn’t have pressed because out of nowhere, a horizontal door appears below our feet and we fall through it. The door closes just as the wolves come down to land in the empty space where their prospective prey had been just moments ago…

  ***

  We fall hard and fast. We fall through the purple kys, screams emanating from our throats, out of each of us simultaneously. I look around and see an oddly-shaped curvaceous building on the edge of my vision - a building that has a sign on it that reads ‘Dynsey poera seoue’. Below us is a sea. A sea of golden yellow water. We crash into it, waves engulfing us as we fall deeper and deeper into the darkness…

  10

  KINDRED

  A little earlier…

  Lots of thudding sounds reverberate behind a closed garage door. Many arrows are being shot at a bullseye upon a board. Neil is training in several different ways. Firstly, he fires arrows at the board continuously which all meet the intended target. Then he moves on to firing them at different angles, around corners and blindfolded. Finally, he puts all his upper body strength, especially that in his arms, into firing arrows to break the target board in half, straight through the bullseye. When he is satisfied with the results, he moves on to modifications.

  He builds himself sharp heavy metal arrows and a durable plastic quiver to contain them in, to fix onto his back. Then he fashions a wooden crossbow for protection and sharp metal darts. He affixes detached metal arrowheads and bolts that he places on and within several hidden areas on his prison outfit, especially on the improved utility belt fitted around his waist. Finally, he places his sword in a newly created sheath that he hangs onto the belt on his right side.

  ***

  Earlier still…

  Neil practises in the backyard of the garage he is occupying. Suddenly, three prisoners drag him through a CUT door, causing him to slide across a cold, icy lake on one knee before beating him black and blue. In addition, they try and steal Neil’s crude weapons from him.

  Not my weapons…

  Neil punches one of them on the nose. He then kicks another on the shin before tripping the third one up, so that he ends up sliding across the lake towards the edge. Next, a slow moan is heard by all four of the individuals and they notice it is coming from beneath them. The two prisoners Neil defended himself against first end up escaping via the CUT door towards their friend on the edge, horrified expressions on their faces.

  Neil clears a bit of the snow from the icy lake under his feet. An enormous creature swims about under there; a huge crocodile – as huge as a sperm whale – before it breaks through a hole in the ice. Neil looks from it to the three prisoners. They prepare to shoot Neil with makeshift guns of their own. Quickly, Neil throws three arrows simultaneously at them from his quiver, as the creature breaks further through the ice.

  Neil activates his own CUT device, having seen how the other three prisoners have used it. He grabs the first two specialist arrows he had just finished designing and fires them at the creature.

  The first one, a deadly, venomous arrow created using a mixture of poisons Neil found from various strange-looking plants on his travels, flies around the creature and sinks into its skull. The poison spreads instantly around its body, locking up all of its features quickly.

  The second, a heavy, weighted arrow, sinks into its tongue. The arrow is designed to weigh the creature down to the ground and keep it there. The creature looks at Neil and he at it, a look of untapped rage in each of their eye
s. The ice breaks, the entire frozen surface of the lake collapsing under its weight.

  The creature dies, taking a long raggedy and shaky breath: a death rattle. Neil looks at the three prisoners who look back at him, dread in their features. The arrows Neil has fired at them have injured them considerably, causing a huge loss of blood. They quickly disappear from sight as Neil runs across the ever-breaking ice, sliding as he does straight through his newly created CUT door back to the garage again, ready for more action…

  ***

  Now…

  His short journey from where he woke up and through the vast landscapes of Raeth enables him to collect enough material to create the weapons he is able to build himself. He had walked and walked until he had stumbled upon his abandoned garage, a means to shield himself from prying eyes, an area to re-focus on what he needed to do. As he travelled to this place, he had been able to piece together the relevant information he needed to inform him of why he is in this place.

  I need to find the Gems.

  His face and body slightly bruised and scarred from both of his earlier fights, he continues wandering. His memory is sketchy at times and his goal is uncertain, but he feels he has to try anything to survive. Neil leaves the garage, prepared for the worst as he travels again through many lands, some barren of life whereas others are teaming with it, hoping he can avoid another clash like the one he had had with the snake. Shadows lurk wherever he goes, but he is ready now more than ever to handle himself against whatever is hidden within them and the threat they pose to him.

  A short while later, Neil passes what seems to be an uninhabited, rundown car warehouse, resembling more of a scrapyard, out in the middle of a deserted town.

  It may be a good place to rest while I figure out what this thing is on my wrist…